BBCImproving cooperation between nations' farming and forestry sectors will help reduce deforestation and improve food security, a UN report has suggested. Between 2000 and 2010, tropical nations saw net forest loss of 7 million hectares per year and a net gain in farmland of 6 million hectares.

Collaboration between the sectors would reduce environmental damage and improve social and economic outcomes, it said.
The report says policies that recognize eco-services can help protect forests.READ MORE

FPSThe Forest Products Society, in conjunction with Mississippi State University, is offering a three-day Introduction to Wood Science Forest course from Sept. 26-28 at Mississippi State's Department of Sustainable Bioproducts in Starkville, Mississippi.

This course is for suppliers, consultants, claims agents and anyone who needs to understand trees, harvesting, wood anatomy and how wood is processed into today's products. Students will also discuss current issues in the forest products industry, along with green building and product testing.

The Fresno BeeTrees are dying in the Sierra at modern-day unprecedented rates, posing elevated fire danger and creating health, water and air quality concerns, but a possible solution to rid the forest of dead and dying trees is getting short shrift, officials say. California's biomass industry is set up regionally to turn agricultural waste into electricity while eliminating open burning. But many local biomass plants have closed or are closing soon because it costs less to produce electricity with solar and wind, which get subsidies that are not available to biomass.READ MORE

La Crosse TribuneWisconsin cities, towns, villages, counties, tribal governments and nonprofit organizations can now apply for financial help for urban forestry projects from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Urban Forestry Grant program. The grants support new, innovative projects that will develop and maintain urban and community forestry programs, said Suzann DaWalt, DNR urban forestry financing specialist. The application process is open now and the deadline to apply is Oct. 1.READ MORE

Woodworking NetworkThe mammoth Ark Encounter project is being recognized as the world's largest freestanding timber frame structure, with a total of 3.1 million board feet of pine timber used in its construction. A football field and a half long, the volume of the Biblically scaled Ark is the equivalent of 500 standard semi-truck trailers. It features three levels of exhibits, with a 1,600-seat restaurant being prepped on the top deck. The Ark's maximum capacity is 10,000 people, however once it opens to the public, organizers plan to limit it to 3,000 inside at any one time.READ MORE

Biomass MagazineA report recently filed with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service's Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) provided an overview of the Russian federation's biofuels industry, including data on likely growth with wood pellet production and exports. As Russia is one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of oil and gas, the report stated that biofuels have had an insignificant share (1.2 percent) in the overall energy production mix and biomass accounting for less than 1 percent.
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NPRIn northern New York state, logger Greg Hemmerich and his crew are clearing out an old pasture at the edge of a forest. "There's a lot of balsam, lot of spruce, thorn apple trees," Hemmerich says. "Ninety percent of this lot is low-grade wood."

In other words, it's no good for furniture or paper or sawmills. But he'll make $80,000 to run the wood through a chipper and truck the chips to a nearby biomass plant. In 2015, biomass — which refers to trees or other organic matter burned for fuel — produced more electrical energy in the U.S. than solar panels. The practice exploded in the 1990s, when oil prices were on the rise, in part because of the idea that biomass was "carbon neutral."READ MORE

The News & ObserverHarvesting wood debris from areas that have been clear-cut of timber does not affect the animals that live there, according to a study from researchers at North Carolina State University. Chris Moorman, a professor of forestry and environmental resources, and his students spent four years cataloging small animals such as mice, toads, bugs and mourning doves at loblolly pine plantations. They found that the populations in clear-cut sites were unaffected regardless of how much wood debris was removed.READ MORE